“Slow up a little!” the captain added quickly, leaning as far out over the rail as his portly proportions would allow. He was almost as eager as any of the boys. He had forgotten his dignity as master of the Arrow, and was lost in the excitement of capturing a fifty pounder.
“Slow now. That’s better—ah! He nearly got away then!”
Just about this time Hugh heard a sudden rasp of line spinning from his rod, which lay on the opposite side of the deck, wedged under another thwart.
“Hello! that pole will go overboard unless I do something,” he cried, and sprang forward to seize it as it slid toward the taffrail. He managed to catch it at the instant that the butt was about to slip oceanward. “Oh, come here!” he called out. “Another tarpon hooked!”
Thrusting the rod into Alec’s hands once more, Billy crossed over to join Hugh.
“Ready there now?” he heard Captain Vinton ask in a loud tone. And then came Chester’s eager, “A little nearer, Alec, a little nearer. There!”
Vinton made a lunge with the gaff.
“Durn him! He dodged it!” exclaimed the captain in great vexation.
“Try it again,” urged Norton cheerily. “Better luck next time.”
Meanwhile, on their side of the sloop, Hugh and Billy were having their hands full. One was trying to gain command of the reel, and the other was keeping a firm hold on the pole. So absorbed were they in this feat, they were oblivious to a sudden veer of the wind and an increased rolling of the Arrow. Hugh’s reel was buzzing furiously. With staring eyes he watched the line cut through the water, and every minute he and Billy expected to see a tarpon just as big as the first one leap from a wave.